North Korean women queueing at a government-run Public
Distribution Centre in Chongjin, north Hamgyong province. THE United Nations is
fast running out of food for six million hungry North Koreans because key donors
haven't made any pledges for 2003, a senior UN relief official has said. AFP
photo...

North Koreans starve in the last bastion of communism as the
world watches in apathy

The North Koreans are starving as the world looks on in apathy. The
leaders of North Korea continue to support a military which can fire nuclear
weapons but cannot field an army without starving the rest of the population.

I wonder what is like to live in a country where there is simply no food
anywhere to eat. A place where you have to watch yourself starve right
along with your neighbors. Imagine nothing to eat anywhere.

And the world looks on in apathy. And the North Korean leaders do the
same. And all the time Americans are endangering their health with their
obesity.

John WorldPeace
November 19, 2002

N. Korean food aid 'running out'

November 19, 2002
news.com.au

THE United Nations is fast running out of food for six million hungry North
Koreans because key donors haven't made any pledges for 2003, a senior UN relief
official has said.

The lack of promises of aid were mainly due to Pyongyang's nuclear program and
its lack of openness, said Masood Hyder, the UN resident humanitarian
coordinator in North Korea.

North Koreans are expected to face another blow as winter approaches.

The US decision to suspend oil shipments to North Korea from December to
punish Pyongyang for its secret program to develop a uranium-based bomb will
almost certainly result in cutbacks in heating, lighting, and power supplies to
schools, hospitals and factories, Hyder said.

He appealed to major food donors, especially the three largest - the United
States, Japan, and South Korea - to be guided by humanitarian principles, not
political concerns.

WASHINGTONThe head of the United Nations food program was in Beijing last week,
pleading for China's help to prevent more death and famine in North Korea.
Facing a funding deficit, the world body has suspended humanitarian assistance
to 3 million North Koreans in the western part of the country. More aid cuts
may come.

.

Emergency shipments of Chinese grain could ease the crisis. But to stabilize
the situation on its border, China must also address the rights of thousands
of North Koreans who have fled into China.

.

In a new report to be released on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch has documented
the refugee crisis and its human toll. A former detainee in a North Korean
logging camp described how prisoners survived, catching rats using shoes as
traps, then roasting and eating them secretly.

.

The embarrassing rush of North Koreans into diplomatic compounds in China
beginning last March provoked the Chinese authorities to tighten border
security, to search for North Koreans in hiding and to go after those
suspected of helping them.

.

Hiding in villages among Chinese citizens of Korean descent, North Korean
asylum seekers are victimized twice. Once they make it into China, they are
highly vulnerable to abuse, extortion and exploitation. Desperate women sell
sexual services through prostitution or arranged marriage. Or they are sold or
abducted into sexual slavery. Some are beaten by violent Chinese husbands
after seeking shelter with church groups who tell them marriage is the only
way to avoid detection.

.

At any moment, North Koreans risk being picked up by Chinese authorities and
returned to North Korea under the terms of a secret 1986 agreement between
Beijing and Pyongyang. Yet under the UN Refugee Convention, to which it is a
party, China is obligated not to push back asylum seekers in danger of
persecution. In North Korea, anyone leaving the country without authorization
is subject to three years in a labor camp, or even the death penalty.

.

A comprehensive strategy is needed to address the human rights disaster in
North Korea and the impact on neighboring countries. North Koreans are
entitled to leave their homeland under the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Pyongyang must immediately cease punishing those who flee and also
stop persecuting their family members.

.

China should halt the forcible return of North Koreans, and begin a high-level
dialogue with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to establish a screening
mechanism for asylum seekers.

.

Countries that hold bilateral talks with China – including the United
States, Japan, the United Kingdomand Australia – should raise this issue
with Beijing. As an interim step, Beijing should be urged to grant all North
Koreans an indefinite humanitarian status and allow aid groups to operate in
border areas without intimidation or arrest.

.

Addressing the refugee crisis must be part of a broader strategy to bring
North Korea out of its isolation. Giving humanitarian aid is one answer.
Exposing North Korea's human rights violations, now largely hidden, should
also be a priority.

.

The writer, Washington director for Asia at Human Rights Watch, contributed
this comment to the International Herald Tribune.

<
< Back to Start of Article

A refugee travesty

WASHINGTONThe head of the United Nations food program was in Beijing last week,
pleading for China's help to prevent more death and famine in North Korea.
Facing a funding deficit, the world body has suspended humanitarian
assistance to 3 million North Koreans in the western part of the country.
More aid cuts may come.

.

Emergency shipments of Chinese grain could ease the crisis. But to
stabilize the situation on its border, China must also address the rights
of thousands of North Koreans who have fled into China.

.

In a new report to be released on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch has
documented the refugee crisis and its human toll. A former detainee in a
North Korean logging camp described how prisoners survived, catching rats
using shoes as traps, then roasting and eating them secretly.

.

The embarrassing rush of North Koreans into diplomatic compounds in China
beginning last March provoked the Chinese authorities to tighten border
security, to search for North Koreans in hiding and to go after those
suspected of helping them.

.

Hiding in villages among Chinese citizens of Korean descent, North Korean
asylum seekers are victimized twice. Once they make it into China, they
are highly vulnerable to abuse, extortion and exploitation. Desperate
women sell sexual services through prostitution or arranged marriage. Or
they are sold or abducted into sexual slavery. Some are beaten by violent
Chinese husbands after seeking shelter with church groups who tell them
marriage is the only way to avoid detection.

.

At any moment, North Koreans risk being picked up by Chinese authorities
and returned to North Korea under the terms of a secret 1986 agreement
between Beijing and Pyongyang. Yet under the UN Refugee Convention, to
which it is a party, China is obligated not to push back asylum seekers in
danger of persecution. In North Korea, anyone leaving the country without
authorization is subject to three years in a labor camp, or even the death
penalty.

.

A comprehensive strategy is needed to address the human rights disaster in
North Korea and the impact on neighboring countries. North Koreans are
entitled to leave their homeland under the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Pyongyang must immediately cease punishing those who flee and also
stop persecuting their family members.

.

China should halt the forcible return of North Koreans, and begin a
high-level dialogue with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to
establish a screening mechanism for asylum seekers.

.

Countries that hold bilateral talks with China – including the United
States, Japan, the United Kingdomand Australia – should raise this issue
with Beijing. As an interim step, Beijing should be urged to grant all
North Koreans an indefinite humanitarian status and allow aid groups to
operate in border areas without intimidation or arrest.

.

Addressing the refugee crisis must be part of a broader strategy to bring
North Korea out of its isolation. Giving humanitarian aid is one answer.
Exposing North Korea's human rights violations, now largely hidden, should
also be a priority.

.

The writer, Washington director for Asia at Human Rights Watch,
contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.

How can we manifest peace on
earth if we do not include everyone (all races, all nations, all religions, both
sexes) in our vision of Peace?